Australian Contribution to International Orthoptic Association Survey

Patricia Lance, MBE, DOBA
Reginald Mitchell, MSc (Macq), Med (Syd), DipAppSc (Cumb), DOBA

At the meeting of the Permanent Scientific Committee of the International Orthoptic Association held in Berne, Switzerland in September 1979, it was decided to collect data on the relative incidence of esotropia and exotropia over a 12 month period relating this to latitude, hours of sunlight and race. Later additional data was suggested including age of onset, type of deviation whether congenital or acquired, constant or intermittent, comitant or incomitant and the presence or absence of refractive error and amblyopia for each case. Each member country’s representative was to be responsible for collecting data from her country. A pro-forma was prepared and sent out with explanation.
Members of the Orthoptic Association of Australia were sent these pro-formas and 26 clinics returned usable date. A total of 2620 valid cases were obtained and the data from these was stored in a computer. This paper presents preliminary analyses relating type of deviation and latitude to the other variables.